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Powerful Storms Ripped Across the South; Tax Day Winners and Losers; Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) Talks about Migrants Moving to Sanctuary Cities; Woods Wins Masters. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired April 15, 2019 - 09:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[09:30:00] ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And broken in half by this tornado that tripped through here.

Throughout the overnight hours, as we've been here, Ana, they have been working on the power lines. Dozens of people left without power here. And out here on the street here this morning, you can see the crews already back out here at work trying to piece everything back together. But it will take some time.

You can see the massive trees uprooted by the strength of this storm here as well. So this is a storm typical for this time of year causing extreme devastation for many of these people in these areas. And this is something here in the springtime in Texas and in the south many people prepared and used to.

Ana.

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Prepared, but you're still no match for Mother Nature no matter what. It's devastating to see the destruction there.

Ed Lavandera, thank you for walking us through that.

A sheriff's deputy in Washington state is the first in his department's 165-year history to be killed in the line of duty. Deputy Justin DeRosier was shot and killed Saturday night while responding to a report of a disabled vehicle when he called for help saying he had been shot. The 29-year-old deputy leaves behind a wife and six-month- old daughter. The suspect in that shooting was later shot and killed by police. No other deputies were injured.

Dallas police making an arrest following the vicious mob beating of a transgender woman that was caught on cell phone video. And I have to warn you,, this video is tough to watch. It shows people repeatedly kicking and punching this woman in broad daylight. Investigators are reviewing the video to determine whether this is a hate crime. They say the woman was involved in a minor car crash before being attacked. Police detectives say they have arrested this man, 29-year-old Edward Thomas for his alleged role in the aggravated assaults. They are still seeking the public's help to identify others who may have been involved.

A Florida breeder of giant Australian birds called cassowarys was killed by one of his own flock. Authorities say the rare flightless bird attacked the 75-year-old after he fell on Friday morning. Now, cassowarys can weigh up to 160 pounds. They have razor sharp talons up to four inches long. The victim made the first 911 call himself. A short time later, another person called to report a medical emergency. That victim was rushed to a nearby hospital. Unfortunately, they couldn't save him. The bird remains on the property while authorities investigate.

Time is running out to file your taxes. If you did it already, chances are you noticed a change. Who's winning and who's losing under President Trump's tax plan, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:36:56] CABRERA: It's tax day. Next hour, President Trump is going to leave the White House for Minneapolis where he is set to tout the GOP's tax reform. But just how are Americans really faring this April 15th?

Christine Romans has the answer.

Good morning, Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Tax day, my favorite day of the year.

Look, this is the first under President Trump's new tax law, so we're all getting used to it here. If you put off filing your taxes, you are not alone. You know, as of Friday, the IRS reported as many as 50 million taxpayers still had not filed their tax returns. So they're stayed up late watching "Game of Thrones" and now they're busy this morning.

So, who are some of the winners and the losers under Trump's new law? Winning? Well, most U.S. taxpayers. Data from the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation shows more than 65 percent of tax filers will see their overall tax burden fall at least $100. Losing? Well, people who thought a tax cut would mean they'd get a bigger tax refund. That's not happening. New figures from the Treasury show the IRS issued about $6 billion less in refunds this year with refunds down an average of $20.

So, well, how can that be? Why the smaller tax refunds? Well, for many, it's because those workers took home more money in their paychecks during the year because employers began using the new IRS income tax withholding tables. In other words, you paid less in taxes but you still got a smaller refund.

Other taxpayers were going to pay a lot more because the new code gutted some popular deductions, namely the full deduction for state and local taxes. That's going to really hurt taxpayers in high tax states, like New York and New Jersey. Taxpayers there took a huge hit.

Now, the biggest winner, Ana, U.S. companies. The tax loss slashed their corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. Of course many companies never paid the full 35 percent rate anyway because of all the loopholes. But the lower rate took a big bite out of corporate tax collection. So much so, Ana, the budget deficit is now swelling because less money is coming into government coffers.

CABRERA: Trump also renewing attacks on the Fed this weekend. Is there any new fallout there?

ROMANS: Yes. The president is making without any evidence this claim that the stock market would be up 5,000 points or 10,000 points and the economy would be growing at 4 percent if the Fed had not been raising interest rates last year. Now the president, you know, famously is a brand master and a real estate guy, not an economist. But he seems to be putting the blame on what is now kind of a still growing economy, but it's not growing gangbusters the way he promised. The effects of those tax cuts are starting to wear off a little bit in terms of economic growth and how much they're giving to economic growth. So you're not getting this big super charged economy that the president had promised, and he's clearly looking for someone to blame on that.

The Fed, by the way, is not raising interest rates anymore. Has said that it's probably going to stand pat this year. He's attacked the independence of the agency, which is something that really worries a lot of people in the markets because they worry -- you know, an independent Fed is incredibly important. It's the shock absorber for the American economy and it really speaks for American workers and American families. That's what its clientele is, not the White House.

CABRERA: And we see the markets are down slightly this morning.

Christine Romans, thanks for all that.

[09:39:59] Now, will the president follow through with a plan to dump migrants into sanctuary cities? The new demand he just made to Congress, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: This morning, President Trump with a new demand to Congress, come back to D.C. and fix the immigrations laws. Now this as the White House says the idea of moving some immigrants to so-called sanctuary cities is still very much an option on the table.

Joining us now is Democratic Congressman Katie Porter of California, who serves on the Financial Services Committee in the House.

Congresswoman, thanks for being here with us.

On this sanctuary cities plan, Hogan Gidley, the White House deputy press secretary, told NPR this, it's not political retribution. If anything, you should consider it on the Democrat side to be an olive branch.

[09:45:10] Congresswoman, is this the olive branch you've been waiting for? REP. KATIE PORTER (D-CA): Absolutely not. The president's plan isn't

legal. Though he cannot spend money that Congress appropriated for other purposes in order to relocate people to sanctuary cities or places where he has political rivals. These are immigrants, many of whom are seeking asylum. They shouldn't be used as political pawns by the president. Congress does need to tackle comprehensive immigration reform. It's hard for us to do that when the president is constantly manufacturing crises.

CABRERA: Do you believe there is a crisis happening at the border right now?

PORTER: Though we are seeing more folks who are accumulating at the border. A lot of that is being driven by the president's hateful rhetoric. When he says things to the entire world, like the country is full, we are not going to take anymore immigrants, we're going to close the border now between Mexico and the United States, that has the effect of simply causing more people who may some time in their future want to try to come to the United States to try to come today. So the best thing the president could do is to fully fund aid to Central America and to begin to approach the process of comprehensive immigration reform. The more his rhetoric heats up, the worse this situation is going to get. And closing the border would be absolutely devastating to the economy in California and around the country.

CABRERA: So you've identified what you don't like about what the president's doing. You did say Congress needs to do something. What is Congress doing right now?

PORTER: Congress has been working to begin putting together a comprehensive immigration plan, but it's really difficult to do that when the president keeps moving the ball. So we've seen in the last week, he's now saying he's going to restrict student visas. He's now saying he might close the border entirely. He's saying no to investor visas, to high stilled worker H1-B visas.

CABRERA: But what is Congress doing? I mean I understand you can't control what the president's doing, but you can control what the House is doing, right?

PORTER: Absolutely. And we're having discussions. We've had a comprehensive immigration plan in past congresses. There's discussion to revise that plan. But we need to put a law through the House that we think the president will be willing to sign. And so his signals really matter in terms of the work that we're able to do. So we could put something together, we can try to get it through the House. If we don't think the Senate will take it up and the president makes clear in advance that he will veto it, then that doesn't make that work very productive for the American people.

CABRERA: That doesn't sound like this is going anywhere any time soon.

Let's move on to taxes. I want you to talk a listen to what Sarah Sanders said over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SARAH SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I don't think Congress, particularly not this group of congress men and women, are smart enough to look through the thousands of pages that I would assume that President Trump's taxes will be. My guess is most of them don't do their own taxes. And I certainly don't trust them to look through the decades of success that the president has and determine anything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: She says Democrats aren't smart enough to look over the tax returns.

Your response?

PORTER: I'll take that bet any time. I do my own taxes. I'm a law professor. I serve with a number of really bright people, folks who have owned small businesses, folks who have been venture capitalists. We have the acumen to look at the president's tax returns.

And what's more important, we have the legal duty to do so. So for the secretary to attack the intelligence and the integrity of members of Congress is just one more thing out of Donald Trump's playbook, which is to continue to attack anyone in government who doesn't want to do what he wants to do.

There may or may not be anything to see in Donald Trump's tax returns. But that's the -- that's the job of Congress to take a look and to let the American public know. So I very much hope he complies with the real requirement to provide his taxes. But I have every confidence that my colleagues and I are capable and smart enough. I'm trained in tax law. I'm a legal professor. I'm ready to go to take a look at those tax returns.

CABRERA: And we know the new deadline is eight days away.

I want to ask you about one of your colleagues, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. She says she has received an increase in death threats now since the president's tweet using her words with images of the Twin Tower attacks. Are you concerned for your colleague's safety at the moment?

PORTER: I think one of the things the American public doesn't realize is that most of us who serve in Congress receive threats of violence, sometimes death threats at one time or the other. I'm a mom of three little kids. It's one of the most difficult parts of the job for me.

Ilhan is also -- Representative Omar is also a mom. A mom to three great kids. And for her to be worried about her personal safety when she's trying to serve this country I think is wrong. The president is free to disagree and disagrees significantly -- to vehemently disagree with Representative Omar. But to put her life at risk and to kind of insight violence, I think this is just immoral, as well as beneath the roll of the president.

[09:50:05] CABRERA: We have seen most Democrats come to her defense. And now the president is tweeting again about this, writing, before Nancy, who just lost all control of Congress and is getting nothing done, decides to defend her leader, Rep. Omar, she should look at the anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and ungrateful U.S. hate statements Omar has made. She is out of control, except for her control of Nancy.

What's your reaction to that?

PORTER: Representative Omar has made clear multiple times, including as recently as yesterday or the day before, how grateful she is to have come to this country. She's an immigrant. She came here as a refugee. She wanted very much to the in the United States and she's gone forth to serve the United States as a member of Congress. So this suggestion that she is anything other than 100 percent committed to this country and this country's success around the world is just false. She has different opinions, she's apologized for some of her statements, there's definitely a learning curve for all of us as freshman, but what the president should not be doing is trying to insight hate and trying to lose -- trying to use the use of lives at 9/11 as a political pawn against Representative Omar.

CABRERA: Does Representative Omar need to be more careful with her words?

PORTER: She said that she will be more careful with her words. She's already said that she's being more thoughtful, she's being educated, she's talking to folks. And so this latest video that the president posted, which -- completely inappropriate and was promptly solely by him, it wasn't in response to anything inappropriate or wrong or hurtful that Representative Omar did. It was a straight up effort by him to manufacture a situation that puts Representative Omar and frankly the lives of my colleagues and I in jeopardy.

CABRERA: Congresswoman Katie Porter, thank you very much for being here.

PORTER: Thank you.

CABRERA: It is being called the greatest comeback in sports. So what does Tiger Woods think about his come from behind Masters victory? Andy Scholes sits down with the five-time champ, next.

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[09:56:17] CABRERA: Tiger Woods completing one of the greatest sports comebacks of all time, winning the Masters for the first time since 2005. In fact, he hasn't won any major titles since 2008. So that's why this is such a big deal.

Andy Scholes was there. He's live in Augusta.

You got to talk to the new champ. What did he have to say?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, when I talked to him, it was just like a giant, you know, weight had been lifted off Tiger's shoulders because this really was, you know, one of the best moments in sports history. And it was a moment that, you know, millions of fans around the world had been waiting so long for, 11 years, you know, multiple back surgeries. He went through, you know, the personal and professional adversity. And through it all, many people doubted Tiger would ever get back on top of the golf world, but he proved all of those doubters wrong winning his allusive 15th major here yesterday in Augusta.

And I sat down with him after he put on the green jacket and asked him what this means to him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All right, Tiger, you've said before it's a miracle that you could even still play golf considering the back surgeries. Eleven years, nearly 4,000 days since just last major, did you ever think this day would come and how does it feel?

TIGER WOODS, PROFESSIONAL GOLFER: Yes, I did think it would come. Just because of what I did last year. You know, I had a chance to win the Open championship. I led going into the back nine on Sunday. I gave Brooksy a little bit of a run at the PGA, finishing second there. I knew it was in me.

Now, did I know it was going to be this week? No. But I had a good feeling that the way I was shaping the golf ball that I was going to be in the mix.

SCHOLES: You joked before that your kids think of you as the video game golfer because they had never seen you win a major. Your kids, your mom, your girlfriend were there waiting for you on 18. What was that moment like when your son Charlie jumped in your arms?

WOODS: Surreal. You know, I did the same thing to my dad. And now I'm the dad with my son doing the same thing. So it's amazing how life evolves, it changes. That was 22 years ago when my dad was there. And then now my son's there. My daughter was there. My mom was there. My mom was there 22 years ago. And the fact that she's still around, still kicking, still fighting goes to shows you her resiliency. It just -- it's hard to comprehend right now. I mean, honestly, I'm just (INAUDIBLE) few hours of winning the tournament. I'm still trying to enjoy it and trying to figure out that actually -- I won it. I know I have the green jacket on, but it's just -- it's still -- I think it's going to take a little bit of time for it to sink in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Yes, and I followed around Tiger for much of the weekend and I can't even really put into words how much this win means to people. You know, I -- when Tiger would make a big putt, I saw people hugging. I saw so many high-fives. A guy standing next to me literally said, I never thought I would cheer for another person like this.

You know, Tiger Woods, Ana, brings out so much emotion from people and, you know, the emotion he brought out on Sunday was just pure joy. And it's, you know, just one of those moments in sports where if you were watching, you're going to remember where you were and what you were doing when Tiger Woods ended the drought and won his 15th major.

CABRERA: And yet he hasn't had a completely flawless past. I mean, he's had his share of controversy, obviously his battles physically as well, but he sounded very humble, I noticed, when you sat down in that interview with him.

SCHOLES: Yes, it -- he seems like a changed Tiger, Ana. You know, I've watched Tiger my entire life basically and I have never seen him smile as much as he did this weekend here in Augusta. You know, after his round Friday, Saturday, big smile, high-fives with fans, seems like a changed guy and he's once again a champion.

[10:00:04] CABRERA: It's a story of redemption that everyone can cheer.

Thank you, Andy Scholes. Good to see you.